ALBANY — Mayor Bloomberg yesterday branded efforts by state Senate Democrats to extract $50,000 campaign contributions from union leaders “the ultimate pay to play,” as outraged good-government groups urged a criminal probe of the blatant fund-raising demand.
“Pay to play is just something we shouldn’t have,” declared Bloomberg.
He had been asked about The Post’s disclosure yesterday that Senate Democrats promised top union leaders special access in exchange for $50,000 donations.
Labor interests have expressed fear that the Legislature will make massive cuts to their favored programs in the new state budget.
The Democratic effort was also blasted by Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau County), who said extracting money from labor leaders with business before the Senate “may get the attention of prosecutors” seeking to determine “whether it’s ‘pay to play.’ ”
“If there’s a quid pro quo involved in it, that’s illegal,” Skelos continued on Albany’s Talk 1300-AM.
Citizens Union Executive Director Dick Dadey called for a probe, which he said should be conducted by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo or Albany County District Attorney David Soares.
“Given the timing of the cuts, this looks like either blind incompetence or a clumsy attempt at extortion,” Dadey said.
“No matter how loose our campaign-finance laws are, I would think that the attorney general or the district attorney should take a look to determine if any laws were broken.”
Henry Stern, a former city councilman who heads New York Civic, called the Democrats’ action “a complete and utter outrage” and said, “This is a question of public ethics that the attorney general should decide the legality of.”
Neither Cuomo nor Soares would comment.
New York Public Interest Research Group head Blair Horner, who called the Democratic action “brazen,” said his group was considering “filing a formal complaint with the Legislative Ethics Commission or the Public Integrity Commission.”
Common Cause Executive Director Susan Lerner said the letter was “breathtakingly bold in the current climate, especially at the [Joseph] Bruno trial,” a reference to last fall’s conviction of the former Republican Senate majority leader on federal charges of using his office to secure personal gain.
Meanwhile, Gov. Paterson, who contends he’s committed to reforming the state’s notorious money-influenced political culture, initially ducked a question about the letter as he insisted, “I haven’t read it.”
But after being told its contents by a reporter, Paterson responded, “The way you just explained it would worry me.”
Also yesterday, Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson of Brooklyn defended the letter — insisting that the Republican opposition had regularly engaged in identical practices when it was in the majority for decades until last year.
“The Senate Republicans have done it,” said Sampson.
“I’m not forcing anybody to do anything, and if you look in that budget, we saved some of those [labor] groups also with respect to that. So I’m not asking anybody for anything, the access is there, open,” he continued.
Additional reporting by David Seifman